Culture media, buffers, reagents and other biological materials (hereinafter “base materials”) are used extensively by biotech companies in research and development, creating vaccines, producing and purifying proteins, and developing other biologicals. Many base materials include precise compositions and are often highly regulated. Additionally, to be safe and effective for their intended use, these base materials must be pure and sterile. As such, the manufacture of base materials is expensive and often requires specialized equipment.
Due to the huge expense of creating, operating, and maintaining the elaborate systems used in the manufacture of base materials, biotech companies frequently purchase the base materials in their final solution form. However, in the solution form, the base materials often consist primarily of water, and as such, can be difficult and expensive to transport. Additionally, the final liquid solutions frequently have a significantly shorter shelf life as compared to powdered base materials, and must typically be stored under refrigerated conditions, which increases the storage cost.
To decrease costs, the base materials may be shipped and/or stored in their powdered form and mixed later. During the initial mixing with the liquid, the powdered base materials are usually concentrated or settled at the bottom of the mixing container. When concentrated or settled at the bottom the powdered base materials may be difficult to break up, and can damage the mixing device. One method of breaking up the concentrated powdered base materials includes shaking the entire mixing container. However, shaking the mixing container creates a risk for disposable tank liners, and also presents limitations on the size of the mixing container.
A mixing assembly and mixing method that show one or more improvements in comparison to the prior art would be desirable in the art.